Buddhist and Christian formal practices compared
A paper by Robert Aitken.Fom the thezensite with gratitude.
"Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer."
—
Simone Weil
On this quote, Stephen Mitchell made this comment:
“I love that. I think that could be as close as someone can get to a wonderful definition of prayer. In that sense, prayer has nothing spiritual or religious about it. A mathematician working at a problem or a little kid trying to pick out scales on the piano is a person at prayer. She’s not saying prayer is absolute unmixed attention; it’s the other way. The attention itself is the quality that she wants to call prayer. So whatever context you’re putting it in, whether it’s inside a church or inside a toy box, that’s the quality that is the sacred one.”
“Faith” ~ a poem by David Whyte
“I want to write about faith,
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night,
faithful even as it fades from fullness,
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness.
But I have no faith myself
I refuse it even the smallest entry.
Let this then, my small poem,
like a new moon, slender and barely open,
be the first prayer that opens me to faith.”
— David Whyte
(thanks to gratefulness.org)
"Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart."
— Gandhi
Contemporary session prayers including taking refuge, bodhicitta, dedication and setting intention, for opening and closing daily meditation sessions.Translated and composed by Ken McLeod.
(thanks for this - it is the first time I’ve seen a comment from Matisse relating to Buddhism)By Henri Matisse
“I don’t know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I’m some kind of a Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.”
— Henri Matisse
"Once Mother Theresa was asked what she said when she prayed. She answered that she didn’t say anything, she listened. When asked what God said to her, she said that God didn’t say anything; He listened back. She added that if you didn’t understand, she couldn’t explain it further. “God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.”―Mother Theresa"
(Source: emptyskysangha.org)
An evolving prayer
May I be granted the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Becoming more mindful day by day;
Accepting suffering as the pathway to peace;
Taking this world as it is and not as I would have it;
Trusting in the practices of The Noble Path to lead the Way.
(This prayer is evolving along with the journey. Inspired by and based on “The Serenity Prayer” )
